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Cathy Weatherford, president of the Insured Retirement Institute, said recently that innovations and new offerings in deferred income annuities (DIAs), a form of fixed annuity, would become “the fastest growing product in 2013” on a percentage basis. A DIA, sometimes referred to as longevity insurance, allows the owner to defer the start of the guaranteed income stream.

IRI also reported that within the variable annuity market, while living benefit elections during the past few years have reached about 90%, many companies are aggressively developing new products without a living benefit to cater to consumers interested only in tax deferral or diversifying into different asset classes. This is expected to continue into 2013.

Here are the Top 20 companies in fixed and variable annuity sales in 2012, followed by the Top 20 in total annuity sales: